Michi Ramen Bar — Restaurant in Missoula

From the moment i stepped inside i felt a shift. I am from this area and leave very often for the military, but i always return for a short time and when i do i think of this place.. or at least i used to. my family and i wanted to have what used to be at least 4/5 star bulgogi ramen dish, but we weren’t at all interested in dining in so i thought i’d pick some up to-go.

i know this place gets pretty “busy” and some of the waitstaff feel overwhelmed, however, i called in advanced and i said i was placing an order to-go and was told it wouldn’t be a problem, when i showed up they informed me that they weren’t doing any to-go orders at the time because they were pretty “slammed” , i guess slammed means you have ONE party of six waiting for at maximum 20-25 minutes.

when the manager walked over she explained to me if i was insisting on placing a to-go order then i needed to dine in and at least order an appetizer or a drink.. never heard of a rule like that before, but i went a long with it.

my waitress then comes over to the bar area where i was sitting to take my order with the nastiest attitude i have encountered in a long time, i’m not certain if it was directed at me but nonetheless it was unnecessary. after placing my order, she grabs two of her coworkers and comes back to the bar area and proceeds to complain and belittle another coworker and the establishment which was making me very uncomfortable. i thought she’d at least get a clue and move on being how the place was “booked and busy”, but she seemed to find the time to stand around with her insolence behavior.

when the food finally arrived, she forgot to bring me the appetizer they were so adamant about me ordering so she just placed it in the to-go bag with no apology. all was well considering i was about to eat some of the most delicious ramen i’ve had, but to my disappointment… my order was wrong and the food was bland.

so in short, if the ramen bar i have always loved does not make some changes then they will have lost a...

Loved the ramen there. They have several different varieties in a fun relaxed atmosphere. They have a "sumo" sized ramen, but the regular size was plenty satisfying. The restaurant itself looked really nice, but wasn't cheesy. Perfect for a casual night out. The plum wine and oyster mushroom appetizer tasted great too. The mochi was very tasty, but a bit expensive for the portion we got. I'll definitely be back here again soon :)

Also, all of the bad reviews I'm seeing are related to the "vegetarian options." Ramen is not traditionally vegetarian so that's hardly surprising. Most traditional Japanese food is flavored with dashi, a salty fish and seaweed broth. If you go to Japan and ask for a "vegetarian dish" you will more than likely be served something that has some kind of fish byproduct or even straight up grilled fish. It happened on multiple occasions to a several different friends of mine while we were living in Japan. Their definition of vegetarian is more what we would call pescatarian. My point is that a true vegetarian main dish is VERY uncommon in Japan, so I applaud the crew here for experimenting to find/create something for our local vegetarians. Just give them a bit of slack as they try to create something new and cool. I'm sure that eventually they will settle on a...

I used to work right by a Ramen place in Helena (hokkaido) and my impression of the food here at Michi is that it is both slightly more expensive but also better overall food than my old ramen joint. Came here on a Friday night with a group of 6 friends and someone ordered the meatballs appetizer. I normally don’t order appetizers but these balls were just delicious. With regard to the ramen, I was looking for something spicy and I found one with beef and kimchi in it. It was called the Bulgogi. I got the “sumo” size instead of the regular size. They gave me a warning about the Kimchi being an acquired taste, which is true, but I’m an experienced consumer of kimchi. Fermented foods supposedly are accretive to one’s health and kimchi is a fermented food. Anyway, the Bulgogi was really good (see photo). For me the spiciness was mild but I’d assume most would consider it spicy. The size upgrade to sumo was an extra $2, and since I arrived very hungry it was worth it and I finished the entire thing no problem. I’d go as far as to say it was probably the best ramen I’ve had in Montana thus far. The inside of the restaurant was quite nice too. Overall just a lovely experience with great seating and decent service. I hope to come back soon and try other spicy ramens like...